Royal Mail Tracked 24/48 - are they delivered faster than 1st/2nd class?

bricksandmortar

So after all that has gone on in recent weeks/months/years, Royal Mail 1st and 2nd class mail is effectively broken where I live. I don't expect to receive anything within a week of it being sent to me, closer to two weeks seems typical.

Are the Royal Mail Tracked 24/48 "courier" services any faster? Different staff, or a different process? I know they are not guaranteed. 

I'm at the point where I won't order anything that is sent Royal Mail 1st/2nd class now, because I know I won't get it any time soon. Non-Royal Mail couriers still seem capable of delivering on time.

steviebabes

Tracked 24 is very good, on a par with SD in many cases. Tracked 48 is slightly better than 2nd but usually takes 3 days so not really 48 hours.

bricksandmortar

steviebabes said:

Tracked 24 is very good, on a par with SD in many cases. Tracked 48 is slightly better than 2nd but usually takes 3 days so not really 48 hours.

Thanks - what about the non-tracked 24/48 services (should have been clearer in my original post)

steviebabes

bricksandmortar said:

Thanks - what about the non-tracked 24/48 services (should have been clearer in my original post)

Not sure these exist.

theonlywayisup

IME Tracked 24 is akin to SD for timing and being looked after.  Tracked 48 takes three days - the first day is the day of dispatch, second in transit and third is the day of delivery, so really only 48 hours.  I have used them since their inception (even did the original trial as a seller an eternity ago).

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

bricksandmortar said:

steviebabes said:

Tracked 24 is very good, on a par with SD in many cases. Tracked 48 is slightly better than 2nd but usually takes 3 days so not really 48 hours.

Thanks - what about the non-tracked 24/48 services (should have been clearer in my original post)

Royal Mail 24/48 is just what Royal Mail rebranded 1st and 2nd class as for business account customers, they are basically the same except the sender will do some of the sorting, by class and format, but if you are having multiple delays with mail sent from different parts of the country the problem is likely to be local to you.

Might be worth a chat with your local delivery office to see if they can advise? There's not been any strikes for a while so mail should be moving through the network as usual, it could possibly be staff shortages at your local depot due to illness or your postie isn't bothering to deliver to you when they should. 

Afourteen

Tracked 48 is not delivery in under 48 hours as the name leads me to expect - if we, the user are lucky it's delivery in 72 hours. I've just been onto the Tracking site and a package I have coming was held at a mail centre for over 24 hours, presumably so the 48 hours timescale was exceeded!
Reading the RM website it says 'Tracked 48' is delivery in 48 to 72 hours...
An honest rename wouldn't go amiss and probably make us, the end users, happier. 

tightauldgit

As someone else said whenever I use RM48 it's day 1 collect, day 2 in the system, day 3 out for delivery. Which I'm pretty happy with. 

I've never had many issues with RM at all although I'm not one of these people who stresses about where a parcel or letter is ten minutes after it was sent. 

The only thing I've noticed of RM of late is I think they are bundling deliveries as I'll get nothing for a week then 5 pieces of mail all at once. It's mostly all junk mail and pointless crap anyway though. 

RFW

There used to be a hierarchy in how post was sorted. I'm assuming that still applies to some extent. Stamped post was usually last. You may get someone with up to date info commenting here shortly.

RFW

Afourteen said:

Tracked 48 is not delivery in under 48 hours as the name leads me to expect - if we, the user are lucky it's delivery in 72 hours. I've just been onto the Tracking site and a package I have coming was held at a mail centre for over 24 hours, presumably so the 48 hours timescale was exceeded!
Reading the RM website it says 'Tracked 48' is delivery in 48 to 72 hours...
An honest rename wouldn't go amiss and probably make us, the end users, happier. 

24 is 1-2 days, 48, 2-3 days.
As a seller I'd rather have their target aim on the postage rather than the worse case scenario. There will always be a 48 that takes more than 3 days to deliver, no one would use a service that was Tracked96 or Tracked120

Tommo2448

Very late to the conversation, but from some experience using T24/48 earlier this year for Ebay items, I'd agree with previous commentators that the service is pretty good.    Tracked items do seem to receive priority in the system, and under the new deal with the union I expect they will continue to do so.

Anyway, in Jan-Mar (when the service was still a bit wobbly) I posted 9 x T24s and 4 x T48s.  Five arrived in 1 day (next day) ; 4 in 2 days ; 4 in 3 days.  Of the four T48s, 1 arrived in 2 days ; 2 in 3 days ; and one outlier in 9 days (not sure why).    I did another T24 couple of weeks ago and it arrived in 1 day.  They were a mix of large letters and small parcels, to many different parts of the UK.

Much of the value for me (and the buyer) is being able to see where the items are from the tracking (using the RM site, the Ebay link is slower) and therefore being able to manage expectations if necessary.  Scanning by RM staff seems to be pretty consistent and timely.   If the buyer provides their phone number (as many do now) I believe they get automatic SMS alerts for each scan.

I can see myself using T24/48 as a seller going forward for anything above about £10 in value, and offering sellers the extra to upgrade if they can, as a buyer.  

I do mine through Click and Drop as a personal customer, and print labels myself.  I was using their free collection service as my local posties usually park their van on the street right by my house to begin their rounds, so it's an easy pick up for them (and they could take a few overseas tracked ones from me as well). The free collection may go back to 60p at some point.  It'd probably still be worth it, rather than having to go to the Delivery Office.  But other folks may have different circumstances.

So, yes, seems to be a good service, at the risk of sounding like a RM salesperson !